Daily Meditation: Sunday, February 29, 2004

Exchanges - fathom Exchanges that we make with nature and all beings

02/29/2004

We cannot live without making exchanges with the world around us. Beginning with respiration and nutrition, our life is nothing more than exchanges, made possible by the organs of sense, touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight which have been given to us by nature. Our emotional and intellectual lives also consist of encounters and exchanges: by means of words, sentiments and thoughts, we ceaselessly weave a network of communication which is the foundation of family and social life. But if human beings do not draw any great blessings from these exchanges, it is often because they have not surpassed the level of instinct, of the unconscious as it exists in plants and animals. Like human beings, plants and animals breathe and nourish themselves. Animals also possess sense organs, sometimes even more highly developed than those of human beings, and they also have a family and social life. It is up to humanity to render its exchanges with nature and the other beings it encounters ever more conscious, rich and profound.